Hello!! I’m excited to share this one! (Like I say every time but I do mean it)
Our story takes place in 2019, on the 100th anniversary of a certain special school in a small German city. Twas that August that my friends Rebecca and Sven and I made the pilgrimage from Berlin to the legendary Bauhaus school of design in Dessau.
The Bauhaus was arguably the most influential design school of the 20th century, and has since inspired decades of innovation in graphic design, industrial design, textile design, furniture design, and a zillion more disciplines and media. (“Zillion” is the word all them academics use, kaaaay)
The UNESCO World Heritage Site is no longer in use but is open for tours, as well as the nearby faculty houses (Meisterhäuser). This Dessau campus is the second and more well-known of the three campuses open during the Bauhaus school’s existence.
The first campus, opened in 1919, was in Weimar. I feel lucky to have visited that one in 2013, even if as a recent high school graduate at that time still naive to the wonderful world of art history… and who knew nothing about the school prior to visiting. (Thank you, big sister Paris, for handing me a water and dropping me off at the museum, knowing I needed a solid couple hours of educating. I’m still so grateful for that)
I ended up coming back to Berlin to study in 2015 and wrote my final paper about the Bauhaus, growing my love for this place even more. The school moved to its third and final location there in Berlin before being officially shut down by the Nazis in 1932.
Interesting fact: After that, a group of the faculty actually fled to the US… to none other than Black Mountain College in the North Carolina’s slice of Appalachia. How bout that?
Buuut anywho, time for some of my favorite moments in this blocky concrete design-lovers’ heaven. Enjoi!!!
The Masters’ Houses
..or “Meisterhaüser,” these four iconic cement structures were built by Walter Gropius as residences and work spaces for Bauhaus faculty members. We slurped down our coffee drinks, got our tickets, and walked through this area first.
I think I most enjoyed the light and dark squares of gray peeking through the pines. It was quiet and breezy out here and just magnificent. We poked around the houses and admired the placement of the windows and them cantilevered balconies. Too cool.
Had the feeling—as I often do—that I still had much more to read and review before I even really deserved to walk through here, but in writing this blog post I’ve filled in some of the gaps in my knowledge about this place via Google articles. I feel delighted anew!
In some houses a door or or banister in one of these would be painted red, or a wall yellow. As I recall they’re mostly empty, with some wall text and display cases in some and installations in others.
the Bauhaus school
This is the school campus itself, a little ways up the road. We found a bench, ate the sandwiches we bought from the cafe, and headed inside for our tour auf deutsch. Below you can see the iconic Bauhaus exterior facade, one of the studio spaces, and the canteen/cafeteria.
Kornhaus
The Kornhaus, a restaurant named after the 19th-century granary formerly on the site, is not technically part of the Bauhaus but is another noteworthy stop on every good little modernism fan’s tour. Walter Gropius’ employee Carl Fieger designed the structure in 1929.
These colors, the little porthole window, and the single salmon light fixture makes this feel straight out of a Wes Anderson film to me.
Below is the view of the fuzzy-tree-lined Elbe River from the Kornhaus. You can see the start and finish tower for the motorboat races held here during the GDR era, as well as the steamship dock.
Another UNESCO World Heritage Site, this white structure perched atop a hill is the renovated Wallwitzburg tower. It was constructed in the late 1790s after a medieval castle style and was used as a lookout point over the “Garden Kingdom,” as this area was called. Can’t miss those crenellations!
*That concludes your Dessau tour. If you read this far, you’re amazing!!! Keep scrolling for more inspiration, ramblings, pics, sketches, etc etc. Love u